oil on board, 18 x 24"/20 3/4 x 26 5/8", SLR dated 1944 The Wilmington-born Colombo, who graduated from Salesianum School in Wilmington and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, studied as a teen under Frank E. Schoonover and his uncle, illustrator Charles DeFeo, who was a New York illustrator and former student of the reknown Howard Pyle.
A second-generation American from an artistic family, Colombo painted in his small and happily cluttered studio/apartment on Wilmington's East 13th Street, and was considered a third-generation artist in the Brandywine Tradition founded by Pyle, according to News Journal archives.
In a 2009 interview for The News Journal, the artist said Pyle and other notables of the school – including N.C. Wyeth and Frank Schoonover – were illustrators, but he called the late Andrew Wyeth "a painter," such as himself.
"The difference between a painter and an illustrator is this," said Colombo, then 81. "An illustrator tells a story [and] a painter paints for love of painting."
After his days studying on scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Colombo tried New York City, but returned to Wilmington, where he married and worked for years in commercial art.
"I hated every minute of it," he told the newspaper in 2009. Later, his painting gained a following with works in several museums and collections of luminaries including Princess Grace, Henry Fonda, Sammy Davis Jr. and Vice President Joe Biden.

Condition:Needs Cleaning, Couple of small chips of paint loss